What is Web Conferencing

Here you will learn web and video conferencing overview, isdn lines, telemedicine, online communication technology, distance learning, bandwidth usage and telecommuting. Video conferencing is a communication technology that integrates voice and video to connect the remote users with each other via internet as they are in the same room.

  

Each user needs a computer, microphone, web cam and a broadband internet connection for participating in the video conferencing. Users at both the ends see and hear each other in real time allowing natural conversation. Many communication companies have been dabbling in web conferencing technology.

Good bandwidth is needed for high quality of the video conferencing. Web conferencing got more popularity with the release of Microsoft Net meeting. Now currently there are a numbers of companies that are promoting the video conferencing software. Web conferencing is very appealing to the educational and business sector. Web conferencing made it possible to bring the users closer (virtually face to face) hence saving the cost and time.

Many universities have adopted video conferencing as an educational tool. Businessmen around the world use video conferencing to keep in touch with other people.

Web conferencing is in more demanding phase and more video conferencing applications and technologies are in the development and improvement process. Eventually video conferencing will allow the creation of the virtual cities, online places where people can work together without the need of physically present in the same premises. Using a computer, video camera and a broadband internet connection, you can establish a video conferencing connection.

Web conferencing is a very useful communication method because it can save the time and traveling cost of the people. A video conference between two people is known as point-to-point and among the more people is known as multipoint conference. Besides the audio and video transmission between the people, videoconferencing is also used to share the documents, computer displayed information.

More improvement is being made in the videoconferencing applications by which people can work and manipulate on the same documents and computer applications at the same time. IEEE gives standard and guidance for the development of videoconferencing. The H.320 standard tells that how web conferencing operates over ISDN telephone circuits. The H.323 standard tells how videoconferencing operates over the Internet (TCP/IP or IP).

The quality of the videoconferencing depends on the characteristics of the circuit between the conferencing sites. In H.323 world, a high quality conference needs about 768Kbs of bandwidth. In the universities and college campuses a higher bandwidth connection of 10Mbs is required.
Following are the some rules for the bandwidth, required for videoconferencing.

Bandwidth Usage

768Kbs this is used in campuses and gives excellent quality.
384Kbs this bandwidth also gives good connection with IP and ISDN lines.
256Kbs Audio is okay but video is not full motion.
128Kbs both audio and video are not excellent.

If you have to choose between ISDN and IP for your videoconferencing connection you should consider two things quality and cost. With the IP based connections there is no additional cost. On the other hand, even though there is some additional cost with the ISDN connection, but you get a constant speed and excellent connection quality and with the IP based connection, due to the commodity internet you do not have guaranteed bandwidth.

Video conferencing has different advantages. Here are the some advantages of the web conferencing technology.

• By using the web video conferencing the faculty members can keep in touch with class remotely.

• Guest lectures can be conducted in a class from a different institute locally ore remotely.

• Scientist and researchers can collaborate with each other at different institutes on the regular basis.

• Researchers and teachers can answers the questions from an agency.

• Marriages in some countries are being performed by using the video conferencing technology, if the one partner is at one end and the other is abroad. The people at both ends can see each other.

• Student interviews with an employer in another city or country.

Telecommuting

Telecommuting is now being used to connote a broader activity, which includes the individual interaction and collaboration that takes places between home based entrepreneur, consultants and business partners

Telemedicine

Video conferencing is also being used in the telemedicine.

Distance Learning

Educators in elementary, secondary and higher education and corporate training are using videoconferencing. Web based lectures are becoming the commonplace. There are other applications that virtually getting the remote guests in the class room and conducting the important lectures. These are great opportunities to add value to the educational process using video conferencing as a tool.

Career Services

Many major companies cutting back their recruiting budgets and conducting the remote interviews by video conferencing, which is making them possible to screen the right candidate.

VBrick IP video solutions enable you to stream and archive video conferences, allowing staff to broadcast live to a wider audience and review the content after the call.

What is a WiFi Network-How to Setup

An Introduction to the Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity)

Here you will learn how to setup wifi network, how wireless fidelity works, hotspot security, vpn servers. Wi-Fi or wireless fidelity is meant for to be used when referring any type of 802.11 network, whether 802.11, 802.11a and dual band. Any products tested and approved as Wi-Fi certified by the Wi-Fi alliance are interoperable with each other.

 

Typically, any Wi-Fi product using the same radio frequency will work with each other even if not Wi-Fi certified. Formerly the term Wi-Fi was used only in the place of the 2.4 GHz 802.11b standard in the same way Ethernet was used.

Wi-fi short for wireless fidelity refers to a set of wireless networking technologies and more specifically referred to as any type of 802.11 network, 802.11b and 802.11a and dual band. The word Wi-Fi was built by an organization named as Wi-Fi alliance. A product that undergoes the Wi-Fi alliance analyses is given the name Wi-Fi certified.

Wi-Fi rapidly gained the fame in the United States with the access point. These devices tested by the “Wi-Fi alliance” are used around the world and allow users to have Wi-Fi capable device like a PDA or Laptop to connect anywhere there is availability of Wi-Fi access point. There are currently three standards that are used to signify the speed of the connection. Both the 802.11a and 802.11b are the capable of 54 Mbps with 802.11a additional features. The most common standard is 802.11b/second because it can transmit the data at 11 Mbps.

All these Wi-Fi connections are fast enough to allow the broadband internet connection. Wireless Fidelity is a fastest growing wireless technology that will probably be as common as phone lines and electric devices. Wi-Fi adds great levels of convenience and high level of production.

Wireless fidelity is planned to be used with the wireless devices but it is most commonly used for internet access. With Wi-Fi you can connect computers in your home, office or anywhere without the need of wires. The computers can just connect to the network that uses radio waves.

How does W-Fi work?

Wi-Fi is the wireless technology to handle the networking/communication. Wi-Fi allocates internet connection globally and to be transmitted by the radio waves. Radio waves are the main cause of Wi-Fi. Radio waves are transmitted from antenna and Wi-Fi receivers pick them up. When a user receives the Wi-Fi signals, a wireless internet connection is produced and a user is prompted to provide the user name and password if required to establish a wireless connection.

What is Wi-Fi Security?

Wi-Fi maintains certain security issues. WEP or Wired Equivalent Privacy is used in the physical and data link layers. It was planned to provide the wireless security by protecting the data, while it transmits from one point to another. Wi-Fi networking usually maintained inside a building premises. The data transmission in the Wi-Fi is protected by Wireless LANs but due to the fact that data travels over the radio waves so there are chance that data can be exposed and capture.

How to secure your WiFi network?

When you buy a wireless router you might find an Installation CD by vendor that CD with guide you through a wizard on setting up router. Here are some suggestions that how can you setup security on the router without using the application software.

1. Open a new browser.

2. You may now type IP address of the router in your browser. The step here is where you can get the management system of the router. Due to different vendors, you need to lookup on your router’s manual for the IP address usually it may be 10.10.10.01, 196.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1, 100.100.100.1 or something similar to those matches and the default password of the router. Every router management console is different from each other. Try exploring around and find the appropriate section to manage.

 
3. You should never forget this step to setup an administrative password. The step to set here is often not located in Security section; you will need to take a look at the utilities, user management or system settings. Find it and change the password immediately for any user account.

4. Enable Wireless security. To turn on your encryption look under the wireless security tab. The step over here will need you to either use WPA or WPA-PSK and this will only appropriate if the devices on your network supported it. Otherwise you will need 128-bit WEP. For WPA or WPA-PSK, you would have to type pass phrase/password into a piece of paper and transfer to thumb drive so that you can set the password in the client’s machines.

5. Change your SSID. You should not make your SSID this will be probably a default SSID, normally those who do not configure their SSID will have their router name such as “linksys”, “belkin”, “dlink” etc. Try changing it with someone menacing, which will be threat for them to connect. Like virus geek, virus spreader. Remember that you will need this SSID when you browse through the network from your client machines. You can find these settings in the section of Channel or SSID.

6. Save your configurations and settings by pressing the save changes or save settings button. You will need to save every change that you will make to the router in order to it can take effect and probably you will have to reboot your router multiple times.

Congratulations, finally you have covered the basic settings for your Wi-Fi network

Wi-Fi Hotspot Security: Using VPNs

There are numerous security issues regarding the use of the public wireless networks but all of which can be overcome. One of the solutions for users, as brought up in Wi-Fi Hotspot security, is to use the VPN (Virtual Private Network) to secure the real time traffic of the Wi-Fi hot spot users. Many small to large businesses provide their employees with the VPN access.

Although this access is typically put in place for employees to have the remote access to the corporate network in order to access the files and documents remotely. If you don’t have access to any VPN servers, create your own. By doing this you can remotely access the files from your office as well as other devices such as Wi-Fi video camera to keep an eye on the things while away.

When using the software-based VPN server features in Windows XP Pro, the PC running the server has to be powered-on to access the home network from the Wi-Fi hotspot. VPN routers can cost as low as $70 to $130 and the popular models are Linksys, WRV200 and WRV5G.

WAN Technology Overview

What is WAN Networking

In this section you will learn the basic overview of the wan networking overview, wide area communication methods, lan, atm, sonets and x.25 protocols.. There are three basic types of computer networking LAN (local area network), MAN (metropolitan area network) and WAN (Wide area network). A wide area network is a geographically dispersed large network. A wide area network can be privately owned or rented. A WAN covers a large geographical area such as a city, province or a country.

A widea area network may consist of a multiple LANs or MANs. The world’s most popular wide arae network in the world is is the internet. WANs are the corporate network that utilizes leased lines.

Wide area networks generally utilize much expensive equipment. The main communication technologies that are included in the WAN are SONET, Frame Relay and ATM. The computers that are connected to the WANs are generally connected through the public networks and they can also be connected through the satellites.

WANs are used to connect the computers in the one part of the world with the other part of the world. So the users and computers from the different parts of the world can communicate with each other. Many WANs are generally built for one organization. Other types of WAN networking are the Internet service providers that connect the LANS or individual computers to the Internet. WAN networks are built using the leased lines and a router is connected to the one end of the WAN and a hub is connected to the other end.

With this hub a number of computers and other hubs and switches are connected. Among the other methods of building the WANs are the circuit switching or packet switching methods. The general protocols and the communication technologies that are involved in the overall wide area networking/communication are TCP/IP, SONET, MPLS, ATM and X.25, which closely works with frame relay. Typical a WAN consists of a number of interconnected switching nodes.

Networking Methods

Networking is a complex part of the computing and it covers the broader range of the IT industry. All the communication in the world including satellite communication, mobile communication, internet, telephones and WANs is due to the networking. There are two main types of the networking.

Local Area Network (LAN)

A local area network is relatively covers small space and provides services to a small amount of people. A local area can be divided into two major types, peer to peer and the client server. Depending on the number of the users a network is configured. Among the few examples of the peer to peer networks are small office network and home networks. On the other hand, in the client/server networking model all the client computers depends on the server for resources like (modem, printer, scanner, cd-rom) and they are connected with the server. The servers in the client/server networking model works in different capacities like single service server and multiple service servers.

Wide Area Network (WAN)

A wide area network is a network where are large number of the resources are deployed in a very wide geographically area. The best example of the WAN is the internet itself which is a largest network in the world.

In order for communication to take place between the computers the mediums must be used. These mediums can be cables, Routers, Repeaters, Ethernet, Protocols and switches etc. These different mediums make the data communication possible in different scenarios.

Types of WANs

There are two basic types of Widea Area Networking.

A computer network is set of computers and devices that are connected with each other. Examples of the networks are the Internet, local area network, Wide area network and satellite networks.

Centralized WANS:

A WAN that consists of a server or a group of servers in a central location to which client computers connect, the server provides the most of the functionalities of a network. Many banks, large stores, large schools and universities use centralized WAN. A centralized wide area network may have a number of the servers in the centralized location.

Distributed WAN:

A widea area network that consists of the client and server computers that are distributed throughout the WAN, the functionalities of the network are distributed throughout the WAN. The internet is an example of the wide area network.

The impact of Wide Area Networking on business

In this age of information, data communication (sending and receiving data) over a long distance is a necessity. There have been number of technologies developed that enable networks and their users to communicate with each other, and exchange data easily even if they are at the different end of the world. Geographical area is no more a matter in today’s communication age. Because of this the communication through WAN has been become vital. Wide area networks make it feasible for the companies to have a single network, which will connect their several offices and departments. Companies, banks, large organizations often have their offices spread over a large distance. Without wide area networking the people of a multinational organization can face difficulties to communicate with each. WANs are important in connecting institutes they are very far from each other.

The main purpose of the wan is to establish a secure, fast and reliable communicate channel among the people who are widely away from each other. Wide area networks are often privately owned networks. A wide area network uses many types of network devices such as WAN switches, access servers, CSU/DSU, modems, ISDN terminal adapters, routers, multiplexers, ATM switches and other networking devices. An example of the WAN is SURFnet, which is a research network and that connects the universities and research centers of the Netherlands with each other.

Troubleshooting FTP Sites

FTP stands for the File Transfer Protocol and it is a TCP/IP standard for transferring the files across the internet.  It works as the same way as the HTTP as it transfers the web pages from server to the user’s browser and the SMTP for transferring the emails.  There are many existing client and server FTP programs that are used to transfer the files.  The most common programs are Cute FTP, WS FTP, AceFTP, Smart FTP and the FTP Voyager.  

 

These software are used to create the FTP sites for transferring the files over the internet.  During the FTP sessions the server sends and receives various numbered codes to and from the FTP clients.  Some codes represent the errors and some shows the communication status. When the errors are occurred in the FTP sites then the transfer of the files cannot be accomplished.  The most common error messages include the following.

Common Error Messages

• 421.  Service not available.
• 426.  Connection closed.  Transfer aborted.
• 425.  Can’t open data connection.
• 503.  Bad sequence of commands.
• 530.  Wrong login password.
• 451.  Requested action aborted.  Local error in processing.
• 452.  Requested action not taken. Insufficient space in the system.
• 500.  Syntax error.  Command unrecognized.
• 503.  Bad sequence of commands.
• 504.  Command not implemented for that parameter.
• 530.  User not logged in.
• 550.  Requested action not taken.  File unavailable.
• 553.  Requested action not taken.  Illegal file name.
• 530.  User cannot log in.
•          Operation time out.

FTP Troubleshooting Tips

By carefully examining the log file of your FTP program, you can diagnose the exact errors and troubleshoot it. Many FTP download/upload errors are occurred due to the network outages, wrong login/password and server’s IP address and the incorrect routing of the FTP traffic. Sometimes FTP connectivity problems occur when your system is using antivirus program that have blocked the FTP ports or your system is behind firewall software or hardware.

The following tips will help you to resolve the most common FTP related issues.

• Make sure that you are using the exact login, password and the server’s IP address.
• Ping the FTP server by using this command ping ftp-server-name and see that you are getting the reply or not.
• Check the permissions and the directory structures.
• Check server permissions.
• Verify that your network router or a firewall program is not causing the problems.
• Verify that the connection port is correct.
• Try pinging the IP address of the server.
• Verify that your subnet mask is configured properly.
• Disable your antivirus and firewall programs to determine that if they are blocking the FTP access.
• Try again later.  The remote server may be temporarily down.
• If the problem still persists then configure another FTP program and try to connect with your FTP server. 

Setting up Print Server in Windows 2000 ?

What is a Printer?

Printer is a device that prints text, graphics and images on the paper. With regards to quality, graphics, speed there are different types of a printer. The most common types of the printer are Dot matrix, InkJet and Laser printer. In the following sections of this article we will discuss all the common types of printer.

Common Types of Printer

Dye Fusion Thermal

Thermal Dye sublimation or thermal dye transfer is a process that is used by the color printers. A color wax film is moved throughout the page and pigments are heated and deposited on the page.

Inkjet

Inkjet printers use spray and print them on the paper. They produce high quality prints and have better image quality and they are faster as compared to the DOT Matrix printers. Due to low cost, high quality and ease of use, they are most commonly used printers.

Laser Jet

Laser printers use xerographic printing process, which is a same technique as used by the photocopier machine. In the laser printer, the roller is charged with the electricity and the laser light is used to remove that charge from the roller. Laser printer is very fast and they produce high quality and text, graphics and images.

Dot Matrix

In the Dot Matrix, pins are used to strike the ribbon and dots, characters and images are produced when pin strikes the ribbon. The columns of 8, 9 and 24 pins are used in the Dot matrix. Dot matrix printers have horizontally moving head and pins in the vertical position. Dot matrix printers are mostly cheap and they are used for low to medium quality of printing.

LCD/LED

This is a type of printers that uses the liquid and light emitting diodes LED to produce the produce the images on the roller.

Camera Copy

Camera copy printers produce high quality full color output and the laser light is used to write on the film inside the camera. This type of printing process is expensive.

Line Printer

Line printers have horizontal drum that stretch the paper. The drum is made up of 132 thin cylinders and each have a complete set of characters.

Daisy Wheel

Daisy wheel printers work like the typewriters.

What is a Print Server

A print server is a computer or device that is being connected with one more print devices or printers. Print server holds an operating system such as Windows 2000, Windows 2003 and the client computers send print requests to the print server. The print server serves these requests on the first come first serve basis but there are features in the printing software with which the print jobs can be prioritized i.e. you can give preferences to some printing requests. Client computers connect with the print server by using the Microsoft Network Printing Protocol. Dedicated print servers support a large number of the protocols such as TCP/IP, NetBEUI, IPX/SPX, LPD/LPR and NetBIOS.

How to Setup Print Server in Windows 2000/2003

Installation

1. Install the operating system such as Windows 2000 or Windows 2003.

2. Attach printer device with the computer. Normally operating system will automatically detect the printer and if not then you have to manually install the driver of the printer by inserting the CD-ROM. If you don’t have the drivers in the CD then you can download from the vendor’s website or from driverguide.com. You just need to know the model of your printer such as Hewlett Packard LaserJet 2600n, Canon PIXMA™ iP90 InkJet, Lexmark C534N, Canon PIXMA™ MP530 All-In-One Inkjet etc.

3. Install and configure the printer driver in the following steps.

4. Click on Start > Settings > Control Panel > Printer and Faxes.

5. Click on the File Menu > Add printer > Next > Local Printer attached to this computer.

6. Check Automatically Detect and Install My Plug and Play Printer.

7. Click Next.

8. Wizard will automatically detect any attached printer and install the driver for it. If the system doesn’t find the driver then you will be prompted to provide the driver of the printer.

9. After successfully installing the printer driver, you will see a new printer name in the Printer and Faxes inside the control panel.

Server Configurations

1. Right click on the printer name > Properties > Sharing > Share this printer.

2. Provide a shared name for your network printer.

3. This name will be used by all the client computers on the network who want to access this printer.

4. You can also set the color management, priorities, printing preferences, font and other things in the properties tab of the printer.

Client Computer Configuration

If you want to setup the printer at the client computer then you can do this by the following command.

\\computername\printername (printer name is the shared name of the printer)

Second option is the same as you installed the print device on the server i.e. Start > Settings > Control Panel > Printers and Faxes > File Menu > Add Printer.

In this tutorial you have learnt that what is a printer, basic types of the printers and how to setup print server in Windows 2000/2003.